ETHICAL PROBLEMS FACED BY MANAGERS All people belong to various organisations. We are frequently finding some ethical dilemmas regarding the right and wrong when values are in conflict. All the organisations expect loyalty from the employees. The modern society has become a cynical society with the 'distrust' and 'mistrust' of scientists, business leaders and managers. The unethical practices are increasing in the organisations. Amitai Etzioni, a famous sociologist was a visiting professor at Harvard Business School concluded that, "by and large, I clearly had not found a way to help classes full of MBA's see that there is more to life than money, power, fame and self-interest". The current and future managers have to be empowered with ethical tools and ideas to manage effectively the ethical issues. Ethical conduct is welcomed by the emerging section of society. The people are tired of unethical issues. The employees are clearly looking for positive guidance from their organisations. Many organisations accept the need for healthy organisations. All organisations like religious, educational, philanthropic and sports organisations to face ethical problems. Many organisations face the problem of unethical practices and have framed codes of ethical conduct. According to Felix Rohatyn, a New York investment banker ethics cannot be taught past the age of ten. According to a former Dean of MIT business school students ought to have learned ethics from their families, clergy, or previous schools. Bad apples are just tainted people who cannot be properly trained or rehabilitated. According to this view, the bad apples have to be identified and discarded. In reality ethics can be taught to students. The students of business should be given utmost importance in teaching ethics. Ethics refers to the principles, norms and standards of conduct governing an individual or group. The students of business should know the ideal ethical practices in the emerging global environment. Since ethics is dealing with conduct, managers need a management approach to deal with organisational ethics. It is
good to expect that people work to produce high quality products, to treat customers well and promote ethical business practices. Ethical behaviour in business is consistent with the principles, norms and standards of business practice. Ethical practice is not related to law-abiding behaviour only. There are many ethical problems which cannot be brought under legislation. In his book "The Republic", Plato said, "No compulsory learning can remain in the soul ..., teaching children, train them by a kind of game, and you will be able to see more clearly the natural bent of each". Ethical games can teach ethics interestingly. According to Etzioni, most human decisions are based on ethical and emotional considerations as well as rational economic self-interest. The decisions are motivated by both economic and moral concerns. In fact, business has a huge stake in its ethical standards compared with the rest of society. Managers care about ethics because they are interested in preventing unethical behaviour. Many workers resort to unethical behaviour during the highly competitive economic times. Employees believe that they can help a business company by fudging sales figures, abusing competitors and shortchanging customers. Modern managers have to work even harder to communicate the expected ethical conduct to their employees. Employees are more interested in working for those companies which are ethical and serving for a noble purpose. Many employees are not interested in working for a company with a history of environmental problems, insider trading and law breaking practices. Ethical corporate behaviour is important because the employees translate the ethics of the company into action. People want to be proud of where they work. According to a study made by Cullen and Victor, workers are more committed to organisations which have a benevolent ethical climate. The organizational commitment is lower in self-interested oriented "egoistic" organisations. Another study suggests that managers who found their senior management to be credible such as honest and competent report positive attachments to their organisations.
Ethics as a new paradigm: The word paradigm refers to pattern. Business and ethics are more compatible in the present than in the past. The present global business paradigm includes individual and group empowerment, responsibility, identification of employees with management, harmony, co-operation, team work, trust, honesty, and integrity. Tom Peters in his book, In Search of Excellence has attacked the old model of business as outdated and irrelevant to modern days. The traditional model was suffering from problems like hierarchy control scientific management, assembly lines and importance to quantitative analysis. The old model is not flexible to meet the modern challenges. Noel Tichy of university of Michigan Business School says that a new model requires tremendous communication, continuous adjustment to an uncertain environment and problem solving without hierarchy. The new paradigm has taken ideas not only from management and also eastern and western spiritual traditions. The new paradigm is focusing on people and interconnectedness. Work places are considered as communities. The employees are considered as members of these communities. Work atmosphere is no longer a place for livelihood only. It provides a testing ground for social and professional growth. Apart from technical skills, social and spiritual skills can also be developed. The relationship between the company and employee is not a contract but something is more than that. Jack Welch former CEOof General Electric believes that employees want rewards in terms of money and also ethical practices. Jan Carlzon states that if employees are treated with love, respect, and trust, they will contribute more, risk more and achieve more. If fear is the motivator performance becomes poorer. This is change in the organisational ethics.
Common ethical problems faced bv the managers: Many ethical dilemmas can be predicted in modern times. At the same time mishandling of ethical dilemma can create more problems for the management.
Human resource issues: According to Barbara Toffler, 66 per cent of ethical issues involve human resources. (Toffler, 1986, Tough Choices: Managers talk ethics, New York, John Wiley & Sons). A common problem faced in knowledge industry is to retain the qualified and experienced staff. The most effective way is to create a conducive working environment. Mutual respect and appreciation are necessary for increased production. Equity, reciprocity and impartiality are the cornerstones for the development of human resources. A case study: You have interviewed candidates for the post of a senior position in management. This job requires emotional and physical strength. The job at least for two years cannot have a vacation. The candidate selected has an extraordinary experience for more than ten years in a similar job. But you are told that she is pregnant, can you select her for the job? Discuss the ethical issues in this case Conflicts of interest Personal and professional conflicts can also take place in any organisation. A supplier promises to secure admission for the daughter of a manager in a prestigious school in a city. The supplier does not want any favour for this, what is your stand in this case? There are many other issues like use of company's resources, sharing information with competitors and getting gifts and compliments from suppliers.
New skills required for managers: 1) Managing people: The modern managers need to be proficient in hiring the best people, evaluate their
performance and discipline them. Ethical practices like hiring the right person for a right job, analysing the academic and work records of the person, his emotional intelligence, honesty and values have be followed: At any cost bias has to overcome. Hiring, promotions and even termination should be based on unbiased performance. People are bound to differ physically and psychologically. Bias and prejudice have to overcome by the managers. A person may perform well in one department or at one point of time. The very same person may not be good in another department or at a later point of time. That is why continuous evaluation is becoming a necessity. The performance of the individual should go with the objectives of the organisation. The manager should continuously appraise the performance of each and every employee of his department. This appraisal should take into account both the positive and negative aspects of performance. The positive aspects to be congratulated and a feedback should be given on negative performance. A good ethical feedback should be in proportion to the extent of performance. Disciplining employees cannot be postponed. Many managers ignore the shortcoming of the workers with a hope that situation will improve. Discipline is necessary both to improve productivity and also to tone up the organisational climate. On the basis of research done earlier, some findings have been made on the effective ways to discipline employees. First of all. the discipline must be constructive and carried out in a professional way. Themanager should not be emotional but explain to the employee the effects of indiscipline like late coming and find out the causes of indiscipline. He should also find out the ways of removing these causes of indiscipline. Secondly. the discipline should be done privately behind the closed doors. Public criticism encourages hard feelings. Thirdly. the employees should be encouraged to explain their side of explanation. Finally. discipline should be consistent with what other employees have received for similar offences.
In a world of competitive environment, some terminations are bound to take place. Termination is not a pleasant function to be performed by a manager. There are some strong 'causes' for termination such as forgery, fraud, violence and sexual harassment.
A case study: Praveena is a loan officer in your bank. She has forged an approval signature on a customer loan, which requires signatures from two loan officers. When this case is reported, she profusely apologizes. She says her husband has been very ill and was going to surgery on the day she forged the signature. She did not have time to find another loan officer to sign. Praveena has a spotless record of 15 years in the bank. How will you handle this case? Terminations have to be carried out in a most effective way. When a violent person has to be fired, some security is to be by the side of the manager. If a number of employees have to be laid off, outplacement counselors have to be with the manager. The termination news should be given well in advance. The delivery of the news should be compassionate and quick. In any case it should not be abusive. Rice and Dreilinger say that the desire for justice is a "fundamental human characteristic. People want to believe that the world operates on the principles of fairness; they react strongly when that belief is violated".
2) Diversity in Work Force: The work force in all organisations is diversified. Some are optimistic and few are pessimistic; some have good health and some others have some health problems; some are having good habits and a few others are addicted to alcoholic or tobacco, some are patient and many others have short tempers. A manager is also a human being but he has to show his managerial skills in dealing with the diversified group of his colleagues. Imagine your strategies to manage the following cases:
1) In a male dominated department, Malathi is the only woman. In staff meetings of that department, everybody is profusely complimenting her. They compliment her dress, the way she speaks and her style and she feels uncomfortable. She reports this matter to you. What will be your solution? 2) One of your Assistant Managers belongs to a fundamentalist church. He goes on preaching to his co-workers, customers and suppliers. You spoke to him about this polishly and since then his behaviour escalated. What will be your reaction to solve this problem? 3) Esther is one of your well performing colleagues. She is not only dedicated but also talented. She has given birth to the second child. After this it is difficult for Esther to stay in the office for any day after 5 pm. Your office has all meetings only in the afternoons. It is difficult for Esther to be in these meetings which are crucial in terms of market expansion, performance review and strategy formulation. The other colleagues of Esther do not like this practice of going home every day by 5 pm. You do not want to cause problems for Esther. Suggest a way out for this problem.
3) Effective communication: Managers should communicate their expectations both publicly and privately. Managers should be ethical in their commitments. Personal example is the best communication for management. The managers should follow the attitude of "tell me everything". They should know not only the good news but also the bad news. Without communication it is not possible to encourage ethical behaviour. If managers do not communicate with employees, they will not communicate with the managers. The managers will not be kept in darkness. The managers should be able to communicate with as much employees as possible. That is why in modern days management "bywalking around" and "open-door policies" are popular. Face to face communication brings satisfaction to the employees with their work life. According to many research findings, employee satisfaction is directly connected with the managers communication
related to job performance feedback, complaints, appraisals, compensation and career objectives. Communication creates bridges and enhances the team spirit. In this way, communication becomes an ethical act. In the case of all the written reports going from the managers, the manager must have a thorough knowledge about the contents of all reports. Lack of time and busy otherwise are unethical practices on the part of any manager.
Managing for ethical conduct in modern times: Modern managers need simple and practical tools for managing ethical conduct. Ethics has to be practised in concrete terms. Ethical behaviour should be given top priority. The unethical behaviour has to be discouraged. For example, the sales force can talk about the features of the product and the ability to deliver these products within a date. False promises and assurances are to be discouraged. In general, people want to be rewarded and want to avoid punishment. Naturally people behave in such way that they want to get rewards and avoid punishment. People want information about rewards and punishments. A good rewards system has to be established. The goals have to be established in such a way that ethical practices have to be followed in achieving the targets . Unachievable goals may tempt the unethical practices. Ethical conduct accompanied by performance can be called the ethical Pygmalion effect. For example, a salesperson follows honesty and achieves the sales target is said to have reached ethical Pygmalion effect. A combination of high ethical behaviour and good performance can be achieved through ethical Pygmalion effect. The social learning theory is also influencing the ethical conduct in an organisation. In terms of social learning theory, people learn from observing the rewards and punishments of others. If good behaviour is rewarded, people want to practice it. If bad behaviour like
cheating or stealing are rewarding and go unnoticed, people are tempted to follow these unethical activities.
Summary Code of ethical conduct. Ethics is a new paradigm. Common ethical problems faced by the managers: Human resource issues. Conflicts of interest. New skills required for managers Managing for ethical conduct in modern times.
Questions Section 'A' 1) Define code of ethical conduct. 2) Define managing people in ethical ways. Section 'B' 1) Discussthe features of code of ethical conduct. 2) How ethics has become a new paradigm? 3) What are the new skills required for managers? Section 'e' 1) Examine the ethical problems faced by the managers. Discuss the right steps to be followed for meeting these problems.
